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Ben Miller’s amiable, emotionally repressed Graham Greene-meets-Mr Bean English detective, Richard Poole, returns to the Caribbean island of Saint-Marie for a new series of cheery whodunnits. Nobody should expect The Wire from Death in Paradise; it is what it is – a sunny, frothy slice of escapism that should be welcomed in a TV detective world that’s gone noir.

As the episode opens, a plantation owner is found dead, with a huge knife sticking out of his back, just before he was due to make a big announcement to his feuding family. The story follows a classic Agatha Christie pattern, with lots of suspects all of whom are gathered together at the end as Poole – who, bizarrely, is still wearing a suit and tie and clutching a briefcase – reveals the culprit.

About this programme

1/8. Crime drama about a British detective working on a Caribbean island. When the owner of a sugar plantation is discovered dead with a machete in his back, DI Poole and his team have a seemingly impossible case to solve. There are numerous suspects, including the victim's alcoholic ex-wife and much younger widow, but they all have seemingly cast-iron alibis - and many were with one another when the murder took place. Crime drama, starring Ben Miller, with guest appearances by Stephanie Beacham (Dynasty, Tenko), James Cosmo (Game of Thrones) and Tom Ward (Silent Witness).